Kyocera Unveils Zio, its Android-Powered Smartphone

The Zio M6000 represents the rebirth of Kyocera's smartphone department. They have been absent from the smartphone sector for awhile now, and this phone is definitely their kind of creation. While not a top-of-the-line phone in terms of it's computing power, the Zio sports a large 3.5" 800x480 pixel screen, and many more attractive features.

Here are some quotes from the in-depth PCMag article that really matter to me:

"The new phone uses a 600 Mhz Qualcomm MSM7227 processor, just like the new Motorola Devour; you'll see the MSM7227 in a lot of low-cost smartphones this year.

The phone will come with Android 1.6 but it will be user-upgradeable to Android 2.1, according to Kyocera.

The Zio is also a 3G CDMA phone with a 3.2-megapixel camera, stereo Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, a memory card slot that supports up to a 32GB card, and 512 MB of on-board memory for apps."

So, when can we expect it and how much is this phone likely to set you back? This is the really astounding part: sources indicate that we should expect the phone around Q2 2010 and that the price will range from $169 to $216 WITHOUT contract. If you get this phone with a contract, you may be looking at possibly the first launch of a free Android phone with contract.